AI file import…help!

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Mike,

We may need some more information about your logo and the file to help.

Without it, I can offer the following general suggestions:

1. The best practice for your Illustrator document is to make your elements filled solids and to put each element on a separate named layer, then import by layers in Invigorator. This helps a lot with organizing your project.

2. Do not use blends, transparencies or bit-mapped elements at this stage. They won’t be read into the model.

3. When the elements come in, they’ll all be at the default depth and position settings. This means your objects may all be there, but you can’t see them because they’re “inside” other elements. Selecting individual objects and changing depth or z position to move some forward or backward will reveal what’s there.

4. Also be sure compression is turned offf off when you save the file. Because you’re seeing something in Invigorator now, this probably isn’t your issue.

Does this help?

Jon

[Mike Mezeul]

Hi Jon,
I really honestly don’t know too much about Illustrator. What I did is I took a JPEG of the needed logo and placed it in Illustrator. I then used live trace to remove the white background behind the logo. I then exported it as an AI file, no compression. What is the best way to create new, separate layers in AI (CS3)? Sorry for all the beginner questions but thank you for all your help!
Mike

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Mike,

This helps.

Any jpg image you put into Illustrator can only be used as a template for the logo you must then create. Simply removing the white around it by creating a mask object is not enough. Instead, you’ll need to use the illustrator pen tool (or others) to draw each element of the logo.

Think of it this way:

Create a new layer, draw the basic background shape as a filled solid (with no stroke.

Create a second new layer where you’ll draw one or more of the other shapes. Any elements you put on the same layer will move together.

You can use Illustrator Text for the logo but you’ll need to convert it to outlines for Invigorator to read it.

Create as many new layers as you need to construct the logo.

Again, the jpg part won’t do anything when you import the file into Invigorator… though you CAN later apply the image to the face of the 3D object. That’s another story.

Does this help?

Jon